City Councilwoman LaToya Cantrell speaks at her first re-election fundraiser on Oct. 9. (Robert Morris, UptownMessenger.com)

Marlon “10th Ward Buck” Horton — appearing in the video for his song “St. Thomas” — is the lone challenger to have announced thus far against Councilwoman LaToya Cantrell. (Robert Morris, UptownMessenger.com)

As speculation heats up about possible candidates in the upcoming New Orleans city elections, Councilwoman LaToya Cantrell so far faces only one announced challenger in her first bid for re-election: bounce artist Marlon “10th Ward Buck” Horton. Continue reading »

This past week, the Louisiana Fourth Circuit Court of Appeal ordered the reinstatement of yet another New Orleans police officer on grounds that the NOPD violated the “Police Officer’s Bill of Rights” by taking too long to investigate his misconduct.

Thomas McMasters illegally arrested two women in 2009 for prostitution loitering, which requires a conviction for prostitution within the previous year. McMasters, however, failed to check for a previous conviction and neither woman had one. Since women don’t appreciate being mislabeled as whores (imagine!), they filed complaints. McMasters admitted during the investigation that he knew the law but simply didn’t follow it.Continue reading »

The two judicial seats on Saturday’s ballot will head to a runoff next month, whittling the eight-candidate field down to Stephen Jupiter and Clint Smith in Traffic Court and eliminating one person for a runoff between Harry Cantrell and Mark Vicknair for Magistrate. Continue reading »

Three men robbed a South Carrollton pharmacy at gunpoint Thursday evening, and an 18-year-old was arrested and charged with the armed robbery Thursday of two workmen renovating a Broadmoor home, New Orleans police said. Continue reading »

The members of “Helping Mothers Heal” gather in a prayer circle at one of their weekly meetings on September 26, 2013. Helping Mothers Heal is a group of mothers who have lost a child to violence. (Sabree Hill, UptownMessenger.com)

The grief that follows the loss of a child to violence is one of the most unbearable burdens life can impose on a mother. It is one of life’s mysteries, then, that by gathering a dozen such heavy souls in one room, the burden on all of them becomes lighter.

“It hurts deeply to lose a kid, and you just don’t know why,” said Ann Dimes, a member of the “Helping Mothers Heal” group at the Watson Teaching Ministries on St. Charles Avenue. “So you reach out to another mother, another sister … because life is precious. Life will continue to go on.”Continue reading »

Four armed robberies and a simple robbery over the last two weeks around the Garden District. (map via NOPD.com)

Tuesday evening’s dramatic armed robbery of a Magazine Street restaurant during dinner — about which police are releasing little new information — is one of a handful of recent holdups around the Garden District area that New Orleans police are investigating, even as the overall number of robberies remains down for the year, authorities said this week.Continue reading »

Danatus King, a lawyer and nine-year president of the New Orleans chapter of the NAACP, announced his candidacy for Mayor last Sunday to members of the Zulu Social Aid and Pleasure Club. It was a perfect place to start, in the heart of the black community which still hasn’t fully recovered from Hurricane Katrina.Continue reading »

The anti-crime nonprofit Project NOLA received a $10,000 grant Wednesday from the Westway Group to expand its network of private surveillance cameras by 40 locations in the west-Carrollton neighborhood, New Orleans officials said. Continue reading »

The westbound lanes of Earhart and the side streets will be closed Thursday and Friday. (via Google maps)

The westbound lanes of Earhart Boulevard will be closed Thursday and Friday around the former B.W. Cooper development (now called Marrero Commons) for filming, New Orleans officials said.Continue reading »

After months of negotiations, New Orleans city attorneys finally reached an operating agreement with Santa Fe Tapas on Tuesday — but only after an 11th-hour dispute over the use of go cups at the establishment nearly brought the matter to trial.Continue reading »

The former Dreamboat. (photo by Jean-Paul Villere for UptownMessenger.com)

Jean-Paul Villere

On a sleepy stretch at Loyola and Third in the heart of Central City amid a myriad of churches (some with an active congregation, some not so much), there sits a veritable historic housing preservationist’s dream, a 19th Century relic in what would otherwise appear to might have been a corner grocery or barroom. But not so fast, judges of book by covers! Look closer at the empirical data and ask some of the older area locals, and this hiding-in-plain-sight wood frame structure was by all accounts (or those willing to provide accounts) once upon a time a place unequivocally identified as the neighborhood brothel, dba The Dream Boat Inn.Continue reading »

The Irish Network New Orleans (IN-NOLA) is proud to announce that it will be hosting New Orleans’ second Irish Film Festival from Friday, October 18 through Sunday, October 20 at the Prytania Theatre.Continue reading »

After a Magazine Street restaurant was robbed at gunpoint Tuesday evening, a manhunt for the suspect put neighboring establishments on lockdown with no one allowed to enter or leave, New Orleans police said. Continue reading »

NAACP New Orleans Branch President Danatus King Sr. will run for mayor against Mitch Landrieu, questioning the city’s strategy on major issues such as police reform, recreation and economic opportunity. Continue reading »